There's something rotten in Detroit
by ussatlantis32770
Summary: A normal first contact turns into a fight for their lives, as an old enemy returns. edited
1. Teaser

The distant throb of the so-called Warp 5 engine, in the first ship to carry it, had long ago become virtually unnoticed. A recent action had brought a plethora of new noises and caused the ship to shake and lurch violently. In the flashing red and blue light a figure appeared. He had just woken up, and was sprawled on the floor in a long, curved hall. A sharp jolt of the ship had apparently sent him into the wall and knocked him out. The noise and shaking had brought back memories of the day when the noises had come more often and louder, the ceiling had started to come down, and even some of the walls had blown out. None of that had happened this time, but there was an odd faint smell in the air, different from the recycled air that he was used to. He decided to investigate, following it as best as he could. He weaved his way through the curved corridors of the ship and came by the Mess Hall and Galley. A number of new tempting smells assaulted his senses, but he decided to press on to find the source of the now almost non-existent smell. Soon he came to an open door where the smell was a little stronger, so he entered and found himself in a room with a large window, control panel, and another panel behind them which had a lot of different lights on it. From the room beyond the window, he could hear the sound of air rushing in to fill the room. The sound soon ceased and he noticed that the smell had gone too, and then the lighting went back to normal and the door closed. He went over to the door, but it wouldn't open, so he called for help. It took a while, but the door finally opened, revealing Captain Jonathon Archer.

"What are you doing in here?" Archer asked as he stepped through the doorway.

He responded with a non-committal sound.

"Everything's fine now, we just caught the edge of an ion storm." Archer said reassuringly.

He expressed his doubt and gestured to the opposite door.

"C'mon Porthos, let's go."


	2. Chapter 1

Captain's Quarters

_We're traveling to this system and what is it that happens? All sorts of things. False readings, sensor glitches..._

Captain Archer decided that this line of thinking was not productive, as it only brought to mind the frustration of being sent on a diplomatic assignment right in the middle of a star-charting mission. They'd probably have to start it all over again and waste another week or more. He therefore decided to push any concerns he might have out of his mind and focus on making an update in the ship's log.

Captain's Starlog - September 1, 2155 - While en-route to a nearby inhabited system, we came upon an ion storm and attempted to circumvent it. However, we caught the edge of the storm, sustaining no serious damage except for a few bumps and bruises. We have resumed our course, and should arrive tomorrow morning.

Mess Hall

"Nice job at the helm, Travis." Ensign Hoshi Sato had entered with Ensign Travis Mayweather in order to eat dinner after their shifts had ended.

Travis flashed her a look. "What do you mean by that?"

"How could you not see a level two ion storm five light years across?" She had been keeping a straight face until this point, but she couldn't hold back a smile any longer.

"I have no idea what happened." Travis answered with a hint of bewilderment. "T'Pol must have been working on the long-range sensors, because it didn't show up on the navigational sensors until we were right on top of it."

"You'd better not mention that to T'Pol. You know how she reacts when you accuse her of making a mistake."

This finally caused a smile to break through on Travis' face.

"Yeah, Commander Tucker's like that too."

"Then that must have been some pretty good maneuvering, so I guess I should have been sincere."

"Do you expect me to thank you?" Travis replied sarcastically.

They both stared into each other's eyes until Travis cracked and started laughing, releasing all of the built up tension of the day. Hoshi couldn't help but join in, but when they had finished, she looked a little perplexed.

"You've never lost before."

The entrance of Lieutenant Commander Malcolm Reed caught their eyes and interrupted this train of thought. He looked as if he expected someone to jump out at him. He seemed to circulate his shoulders and went to grab some food before going over to sit next to them.

"Something wrong, sir?" Travis asked turning back to serious mode.

Malcolm straightened, his expression turning more or less to normal. "No it's just… Ever since the ion storm I've been a little uneasy."

"Getting space sick again?" Hoshi teased.

"No, it's not that. It's probably just because of the sensor malfunction. It's things like that that will get us all killed."

"I wouldn't be too concerned about it. Trip or T'Pol will find the source of the malfunction and fix it." Travis replied reassuringly. "Anyway, what do you think about this first contact mission?"

"Well, it's always exciting to learn a new language and the culture that goes along with it." Hoshi replied

"And what kind of weapons they have. Maybe we can get them to fight against us in a simulated battle." Malcolm added.

"Hmm, establishing contact with a species so that we can fight with them. Sounds like the Klingons." Travis noted sarcastically.

"We could learn something from them. We need some bigger ships, not to mention those shields everyone else seems to have. And then there's all sorts of tactical data we could use to our advantage." Malcolm countered.

"Still upset that the Captain wouldn't let you examine Daniel's ship database?" Travis prodded.

"I can understand not looking at ships from the future, but the data from current ships designs could help us improve our ships and give us a significant tactical advantage." Malcolm's tone seemed to be growing impassioned.

"I'm sure that we'll get that kind of data from our allies in the Coalition sometime in the future." Travis replied dismissively.

"But what if sometime is too late? The Romulans and Klingons don't like us too much, and if the Coalition reacts to an attack like the Vulcans did during the Xindi incident, then we'll be on our own."

Hoshi was watching the exchange with growing amusement as she seemed to have vanished from the conversation.

"Except for Commander Shran." Travis was also enjoying the exchange; it wasn't very often that Malcolm talked to such an extent and usually not with this much enthusiasm.

"I don't think so. The Captain owes him too many favors. Well, at least ship production is being increased and the older ones are starting to get refitted. But I wish that the Captain would take the ship back so that we can get those new pulsed phase cannons, and modernize the armory, so we can get rid of the old torpedoes." Malcolm suddenly realized that he had been going on and resolved not to speak about it anymore.

"Yeah, it's not right when the flagship has less firepower than its sister ship. It almost makes me want to transfer. Except. I don't. Want. To serve. Under. A Captain. Who talks. Like. This." His imitation had drawn a smile from Malcolm and a laugh from Hoshi who decided to treat them to an example of her linguistic skills.

"The ship is under attack and Captain Hernandez says: Lieutenant. Reed. Lock. Weapons. And. Return. Fire. Target. Their. Weapons. Array." Both the accent and tone was so flawless that they couldn't help but laugh. The rest of the Mess Hall looked on and wondered what the big joke was about.

Captain's Mess

"So why didn't we detect that ion storm sooner?" Captain Archer was sharing a meal with Commanders T'Pol and Charles Tucker III. He was searching for answers at the end of a day that had not made too much sense to him.

"According to the computer, the long-range sensors were not utilizing enough power, and therefore were not powerful enough to detect anything that wasn't solid." T'Pol's voice was steady and calm, but Archer had known her long enough to detect a hint of doubt.

"The problem's been corrected Cap'n. We shouldn't have any more malfuctions." Trip said reassuringly. He had not been paying enough attention to notice anything, as he was busy plowing through his food.

"That's good news. Now, what do we know about this planet that we're going to?" Archer was relieved to hear that something had gone right and wanted to get his many concerns out of his head.

"It's a Minshara Class planet located in the D'trotus system with 5 billion inhabitants, and their technology level is less than a decade behind Starfleet." T'Pol answered automatically, as she had prepared to answer this question.

"What's their planet like?" Archer inquired.

"The landmass covers approximately 2/3s of the surface and its slightly tilted axis causes the climate to be mild without much temperature fluctuation. It is approximately .833 the size of Earth with a gravity level of .953 G."

"That sounds nice." Trip interjected, still only half paying attention.

"Some unusual characteristics are as follows: there is not much in the way of mountains or hills on the entire planet, there are very few cities, and all of these cities are relatively small, as most of the population chooses to live in rural areas. Finally, there is no moon or any other planets in the system, with the only notable nearby object being a small nebula." T'Pol recalled her surprise at the results of her research, which had revealed the culture to be a rather extraordinary one.

"How about their values?" Archer also found this information rather odd, wondering what Starfleet could have been thinking.

"They have a small merchant fleet in which every freighter has a pair of small escorts, while the rest of their military stays near the planet."

"Sounds a bit like the Vulcans." Trip commented, still engrossed in his meal.

"There are Vulcan ships which perform scientific and mapping missions." T'Pol felt herself becoming slightly annoyed by Trip's thoughtless comments.

"My mistake."

"Everything about this species says that they prefer to be alone. I do not think that a first contact will accomplish anything more than a trade agreement, if Starfleet has anything they would want to acquire. The fact that Starfleet would specifically send us to this planet for this mission is illogical." T'Pol had come to expect illogical behavior from humans, but it seemed as if this was a little too much.

"After the success that Starfleet had in the creation of the Coalition of Planets, they now believe that it will be easier to find new allies." This was the only possible explanation that Archer could think of for there orders, but he new that it wasn't a particularly good one.

"And God knows that we need 'em with the Klingons, Romulans, and Orions out there." Trip agreed.

"Your fears are unfounded. The Klingons are content to guard their own borders, seek out enemies and challenges, and are reportedly in conflict with some unknown race. The Romulans have only attempted to disrupt the region covertly and they ended up helping to establish the Coalition. The Orions are little more than pirates and would have no interest in a serious invasion." T'Pol couldn't understand Commander Tucker's behavior; he was never this detached from a conversation. He usually had strong opinions about just about everything and liked to push them on everyone else.

"I disagree about the Romulans. They specifically sought us out with those drone ships, and I believe that they will try again someday." This was the opinion that he had shared with Starfleet and had brought about a new way of thinking about Starfleet's purpose and obligations, which was why ship production was increased and the older ships were getting refitted.

"The question is how do we go about getting them to join the Coalition?" This was a question that Archer had no idea as to the solution.

"Logically, we must appeal to their cultural value system of security and isolationism." Sometimes T'Pol wondered how Archer could have ever accomplished everything over the past few years without being able to make simple steps in logic. She could only conclude that he would be lost without her, which was one of the main reasons that she had stayed with Enterprise during the mission in the Expanse.

"So you mean that we offer a defense treaty, while promising not to violate their territory or even contact them again, unless we establish some sort of trade agreement." Archer's mind had suddenly cleared, as it usually did when he had these meetings.

"Precisely."

"But that wouldn't make them members of the Coalition." Trip had suddenly realized this obvious fact and wondered where his mind had been. It reminded him of the time when the non-corporeal beings had taken over his body and decided to have a field day.

"Which is precisely why this mission is illogical."


	3. Chapter 2

Captain's Quarters

Captain Archer was awakened by the sound of Porthos barking, his anxiety greatly enhanced as a slight tremor became increasingly severe over the past hour. Captain Archer was immediately aware of the ship rocking as if it were the wooden ship of old which had sailed Earth's oceans and bore the name Enterprise. The view out the window was slightly unnerving, as the stars seemed to be bouncing around. Just then the comm sounded.

"Engineering to Captain Archer." Ensign Micheal Rostov was the head of Engineering during the so-called "graveyard" shift and had decided that the situation warranted waking up the senior staff.

"Go ahead." Archer replied groggily.

"Sir, there seems to be problem with the primary warp coil." Rostov felt as if he was crossing some sort of a line by waking up the Captain at this hour, but he kept reminding himself that he was an Ensign now with much bigger responsibilities.

"Then you'd better drop out of warp. Have you contacted Commander Tucker?" Archer grabbed his clothing and started to put it on.

"Yes sir, along with Lieutenant Hess. I also contacted the bridge, and Ensign Hutchinson said that the helm isn't responding. We tried to shut down the warp core, but it didn't respond." Rostov was trying to keep his voice calm, but was having difficulty doing so. He couldn't understand why he couldn't get the situation under control. It was as if he was living in a nightmare.

"Keep me informed. I'll be on the bridge. Archer out." He severed the connection and then opened another to the entire ship.

"All hands, this is the Captain. I want all decks on standby."

By the time he got up to the bridge, the shaking of the ship had gotten worse. He moved to his chair as quick as he could manage under the circumstances and punched open a channel to Engineering.

"Archer to Engineering, status report." He said this much louder than he intended, and he had a feeling that there was nothing they could do to stop their impending doom.

"Cap'n, I'm gonna attempt… Hold on. Our warp field is destabilizing! It won't last much longer!" Trip's voice lost all sense of calm: it was replaced by sheer bewilderment and incomprehension.

"Can you divert all available power?" Archer inquired hastily. He understood that Trip knew much more about their situation than he did, but he couldn't prevent himself from making the suggestion.

"It's already been diverted." Trip snapped, his voice coming from a distance now.

Seconds later an explosion rocked the ship, causing it to lurch violently, and threw several people out of their seats. All of this culminated in the ship coming violently out of warp, and the viewscreen showed that the ship was tumbling out of control. Eventually the ship stopped shaking, and the bridge crew was able to pick themselves up and in time to be replaced by the senior officers who had just arrived in the turbolift.

"Damage report." Archer said dejectedly, knowing that he was not going to like what he heard.

"Multiple injury reports coming from all decks, mostly minor. The hull is intact, but…" Hoshi replied after a quick look at the incoming data.

A few stokes on Hoshi's console caused the image on the screen to change in order to show an aft view of the ship that should have been dominated by the nacelles, but instead the view showed stars drifting by, their presence uneclipsed.

Situation Room - Bridge

The bridge team all stood around a console that was reminiscent of one of those games invented in the later part of the 20th century. They were all wearing grim expressions on their faces, with the exception of T'Pol.

"Trip, what exactly happened in there?" Archer almost moaned. He was already tired and frustrated and the day hadn't even started.

"It seems that the primary warp coil has malfunctioned and is now fried. The malfunction destabilized the warp field, which caused the nacelles to fracture." Trip was also frustrated, but it was because his precious warp engines weren't operating and there had been nothing that he could do to prevent it from happening nor repair the damage now.

"Which means that we are stuck here for a while." Malcolm commented calmly.

"A Vulcan ship could come to our assistance, however, Starfleet would have to rendezvous with them first with the necessary parts." T'Pol stated.

"That would be a lot faster than just having Columbia bring them." Hoshi added. She was trying to be helpful, but she actually didn't mind not having anything to do for a while: she could spend it learning about a new culture and mastering the language.

"But we're talking about two weeks just in transit, barring any unforeseen difficulties." Travis on the other hand was upset that he wouldn't have anything to do.

"And the fun part is attaching the nacelles." Trip said this with a much more positive spirit.

"So what exactly are we going to do for the next fourteen-plus days?" Travis muttered hopelessly.

"After we get the ship repaired, as much as we can, we are going to proceed with our mission." Archer replied with grim determination.

"Do you think that it is logical to continue with the mission in our weakened condition? It would only show them how far away Starfleet is located and how inadequate we would be as allies if they were attacked." T'Pol understood that humans, especially Captain Archer, didn't have much patience, but she felt that waiting in this case was by far the best course of action.

"If we are going to get anywhere in a relationship with these people, it is going to go a hell of a lot better if we're honest with them. They don't seem to be the type of people who would tolerate any deception, no matter how small." Archer snapped back.

"What about our safety, sir? If they decide to attack us, we won't be able to escape." Malcolm inquired. Not that he wouldn't relish a good fight: it was just that discretion was the better part of valor.

"It would be against their nature to attack without provocation, unless they feel threatened by our proximity and attack. In that case, the nebula may give us some temporary cover."

The better part of a day had to be spent completing repairs before they could begin the slow trek toward the planet on impulse power.

Engineering

"So let me get this straight. You're telling me that the only warning you got about the primary warp coil failing was a small destabilization of the warp field?" Trip had just finished reading Ensign Rostov's report and was finding it a little hard to believe.

"Yes sir. At first we could compensate for the instability, but it just kept getting worse. It wasn't until we transferred more power to the warp field that we noticed that the warp coil was fused." Rostov replied. He too had found everything that had happened hard to believe, but was finding it rather annoying to keep having to relive it over and over again.

"That's impossible. The primary warp coil should never have gotten near becoming fused, because of all of the safeties in place, not to mention all the alarms that should have gone off." Trip practically shouted this, raging against the universe.

"I don't know how it happened, but apparently the sensors burned themselves out without setting off any alarms." Rostov replied helplessly, knowing his remark was about to spawn more anger and disbelief.

The Armory

"I've been going through the Vulcan database and we know that their fleets are composed of three ships: one heavily armed freighter and two supporting craft approximately one-third its size. The primary ship serves as a weapons platform and remains relatively stationary during a battle, while the escorts provide support, using their maneuverability to form a protective screen. Fortunately, they're only armed with plasma cannons and torpedoes that are akin to a Triton Class spatial torpedo, so we have a definite range advantage, although they still have enough to outgun us." Malcolm had finished his analysis of the Mic'gan's combat capability and was now enjoying the imparting of this knowledge on someone else.

"So which one should we take out first? The freighter or the escorts?" Travis had been called down to the armory, which hadn't happened in quite some time, so naturally he was curious as to the reason. He was beginning to realize that Malcolm had asked for him because wanted someone to talk at.

"The escorts. The freighter has a high percentage of the group's firepower, but the majority of that firepower comes from its torpedoes which have a limited range, due to their speed. Therefore the trick is to stay out of the range of the freighter's torpedoes, while taking out the escorts. That's where you come in." Malcolm had almost forgotten why he had called Travis and was relieved that there actually was a viable reason.

"But the size and maneuverability of those escorts will require the ship to be pretty close to them in order for our torpedoes to hit." Travis found himself wishing that the Mic'gan would attack them, as this all sounded like a fun challenge.

"Yes, there will be very little margin for error, but it should be a cakewalk for you." Malcolm and Travis shared a grin of anticipation.

"Yeah, well hopefully it will never come to that, but it's like I always say: 'Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.' "

"You never say that."

Bridge

"I know that you're busy making repairs, but could you get someone to take a look at the comm system? There's some sort of distortion that's been irritating me." Hoshi had been working with the comm system for hours and the noise seemed to be getting louder and louder, despite the fact that she knew it was all in her head. All she knew was that as long as she could hear the noise, it felt as if she was being subjected to Chinese water torture.

"Do you think there's some sort of weird alien on the ship again?" Trip remarked idly.

"No, it's probably just a faulty circuit. Unless you want to search the entire ship as an excuse not to do any more repairs." At least she could still joke about it was the only positive thing on her mind.

"No, that's ok. The repair teams would be lost without me anyway." The mere thought of another unsolvable problem frightened him. He decided to send Crewman Kelly when he could spare her.

"You're right. They can't work without you looking over their shoulders."

Ready Room

"I have just completed a routine diagnostic scan of the ship's computer core and I have discovered some notable anomalies. The diagnostic revealed a dramatic increase in the total amount of data stored since the last week. I therefore searched through the files in order to find the source of the increase and discovered that there was 5.897 XB of data left for which I could not account. All of my attempts to access the data have failed as the computer refuses to acknowledge the existence of the said data." The discovery had been something of a shock to T'Pol and her continued inability to do anything about it had disturbed her almost as much as the fact that it had disturbed her.

"I don't suppose you can figure out exactly when this data got into the computer?" Archer couldn't help the exasperation from resonating in his voice. He couldn't help but feel that all of these problems must be related somehow, although he hadn't the foggiest idea how.

"It is impossible to find that out when the computer cannot even see the data. The only thing that I can tell you is that it was sometime after last weeks' diagnostic."

"But we haven't been in contact or even in proximity to any ships or planets for over a week."


	4. Chapter 3

Bridge

"Scan the system." Archer tried to say this as calmly as possible, though he did not quite succeed.

"There is a large star-dock orbiting the planet, along with a shipyard, but there are only four ships in the system." T'Pol replied after all of the readings had come in.

"That's unusual. I don't think that we should scan their technology too closely, as they will most likely interpret that as a hostile action." Malcolm advised.

"I concur."

"Alright. Travis put us in a high orbit around the planet." Archer activated the shipwide intercom. "All decks on standby."

"We are being hailed Captain. Audio only." Hoshi announced.

"Put them through." Archer replied and mentally took a deep breath and waited for the Mic'gan leader to begin.

"Unidentified starship. You are trespassing in our territory. State your purpose in this sector." The voice was deep and masculine and bore no malice. What surprised Hoshi was that the transmission was in perfect English.

"I am Captain Jonathon Archer of the starship Enterprise. We have come on behalf of the Coalition of Planets in order to extend an invitation for membership." _Well at least they didn't turn us away_, Archer thought.

"And why would we want to join this Coalition of Planets?" The voice responded with sarcasm.

"The purpose of the Coalition is primarily that of mutual defense and trade, and there is even potential for the trade of technology." Archer knew that one false step could mean disaster, and felt as if he were walking on eggshells.

"So you expect us to join so that we can help you fight your wars?" The voice had now begun to turn more serious.

"No, of course not. Participation in anything as big as a war is purely voluntary. The mutual defense treaty is basically for allied ships in range and homeworld invasions." Archer was glad that he was apparently being taken seriously, but was starting to doubt the probability of an entirely successful outcome.

"What kind of assurances can you give that you would actually abide by this treaty?" The voice seemed to be on the fence about the usefulness of such a treaty and obviously whether or not Starfleet would follow through.

"The idea is to get to know one another better with cultural exchanges and trade in order to build trust. The act of trading will provide plenty of opportunities for contact and perhaps even for mutual defense. The whole accepting and integration process will actually take however long is necessary."

"What about all this talk of trade? What can you offer us that we would actually need?" This time there was actually a hint of interest in the voice.

"We can transmit a list of goods, their vendors, and what they will be willing to trade for them." Archer tried not to let his relief show in his voice.

"Go ahead and send the list. But we aren't giving you any guarantees." The channel was abruptly turned off and the bridge seemed to become totally silent.

"That went surprisingly well." T'Pol was the one who had broken the silence.

"You call that a successful first contact?" Travis replied sarcastically.

"They could have started firing as soon as we were in range." Malcolm pointed out.

"Apparently we are of some interest to them." Hoshi hazarded.

"What I don't understand is why they haven't mentioned our current situation. That would have made for a strong argument against any sort of treaty, and give them leverage at the bargaining table." Malcolm knew that would be the first thing on his mind if he was their leader.

"Maybe they were just being polite." Trip didn't like to think the worst about races that they had not encountered before.

"They are an isolationist race and we are intruding into their territory. There is no reason for them to be polite to us. It is much more likely that they would take advantage of the situation in order to acquire our technology. Since they have not done so, it is logical to assume that either they are waiting for some justifiable reason to attack, or they are trying to lull us into a false sense of security. However, it also is possible that they did not mention it because they do not want to help us repair our systems." T'Pol could feel her emotions breaking through again as a reaction to Trip's words.

"Are you picking up any other ships or anything else suspicious in your passive scans?" Although Archer thought their conversation had been going well, both T'Pol and Malcolm's words had reminded him that they shouldn't let their guard down.

"Negative. However, it is quite probable that they are missing something of importance." T'Pol reported after she had looked over the incoming data.

"Captain, they are hailing us again." Hoshi felt the tension level in the room raise sharply as she announced this and opened the channel.

"Enterprise, we have gone over the list and it appears that we may do some business with your people in the future. As for the offer to join your Coalition, we see no purpose in accepting it. Please leave our space as soon as possible." The voice was calm and measured, but it was also clear that it felt as if the conversation were over.

"I hope you're not in a big hurry, because it'll take us quite a while to leave on impulse. If you noticed, we can't go to warp because of some serious damage we sustained, and it'll take weeks for help to arrive with the parts that we need." Archer wished that they had transmitted video along with the audio so that he could see how his message was being received and therefore be able to modify it so he could get his point across as effectively as possible.

There was a pause and the reply came. "We haven't detected anything wrong with your ship." The voice seemed to frown at Archer's words.

"Well, our warp nacelles are gone and our the primary warp coil is fried. You should be able to see the damage where the nacelles used to be with your visual sensors." Archer glanced around the bridge at everyone with a worried look on his face. What kind of game where they playing?

Another long pause followed and a response finally came. "My apologies. We will send a ship with the supplies you need. It should only take a few minutes. In the meantime we will deliberate and decide what we will require as payment. You will be contacted with the results when our ship docks with you." The voice had gone back to being calm and measured, and after it was finished, closed the channel.

"Captain, something is not right here. They've gotten way too friendly all of the sudden." The words had burst out of Malcolm, as he would usually have waited for someone else to break the silence first.

"I concur. It is illogical for them to pretend that they did not notice the state of our nacelles or our warp drive systems." T'Pol agreed.

"In making preparations for battle, that's one of the first things you'd find." Malcolm added.

"It still could have been them being polite." Trip countered.

"Alright, let's break it down. For what reasons would they act as if our ship was not damaged?" Archer wanted to be totally convinced of their intentions before he gave any orders.

"Logically there are four options: 1) they were waiting for us to bring up the subject, 2) they failed to notice, 3) they are performing some sort of deception, or 4) our warp drive is not damaged." T'Pol replied.

"Whatever the reason, those people aren't likely to help us purely out of the goodness of their hearts. They're more likely to send a boarding party to disable us and then grab all of the technology that they can." Malcolm once again had the words leap out of him.

"So you're saying that we shouldn't let them dock with us and effectively start the fight?" Travis had finally decided to add his voice to the discussion.

"The best defense is a good offense." Hoshi replied, mirroring Malcolm's accent.

"If they are trying to provoke us into attacking them, then we'll be doing exactly what they want. We can't initiate the fighting." Trip was desperate not to make a mistake, as he was thinking of a certain cogenitor who had committed suicide. It was still possible that the Mic'gan were going to help them instead of attacking them.

"The second freighter has departed from the star-dock and is on an intercept course." Travis announced after seeing it on the navigational sensors.

"What are your orders, Captain?" Malcolm inquired, hoping that the Captain would make the correct decision.

"T'Pol, do they have a transporter?" Archer was thinking quickly about what their method of attack might be, building upon what Malcolm had said.

"Affirmative."

"Then we need MACO teams placed at the airlock, engineering, the armory, and the bridge. I also want weapons distributed to all personnel, and the ability to jam their transporter's targeting sensors if they start beaming people over. Can you do that?" Archer directed this last question to Trip. For Archer there was nothing like a crisis to bring about an astonishing clarity of thought.

"It should be simple enough, Cap'n, but it'll take some time. I'll need T'Pol's help in order to get it working as quickly as possible. But what if you're wrong Cap'n?" Trip realized that Archer had made up his mind and there was no use in any further argument, but he had to at least throw the question out there.

"I'm not."


	5. Chapter 4

Bridge

"Ok bridge, we just need a couple more minutes." Trip was calling from Engineering where he and T'Pol were trying to figure out a way to jam their transporters. However, they found that they couldn't finish their work until the transporters were engaged.

"The freighter is less than one minute from docking, Captain," Travis announced.

"All hands this is the Captain. Standby to receive transported boarding parties." Archer was trying to remember if he had forgotten anything. If he had, this could all end in disaster.

"They are docking now." Malcolm announced. "The seal is good."

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately took cover and drew their weapons.

"Open the airlock." Archer felt as if you could cut the tension with a plasma torch.

No sooner had Archer finished saying this than the overhead lights dimmed and red lights turned on and began to flash.

Docking Port One

The airlock light turned from red to green, and Lieutenant McKenzie motioned for Corporal Chang to get ready to open it. Captain Archer's voice came through the comm, Chang punched a button, and the airlock slid open. An object flew through the airlock, bouncing off the wall before exploding in a ball of blue fire. Fortunately for Corporal Chang, he was already moving away from the airlock and was therefore able to dive to safety, while narrowly avoiding a barrage of dark red plasma pulses. The alien soldiers quickly followed up on the plasma grenade by advancing and laying down a fierce wave of fire to cover that advance.

Corporals Woods and Ramira responded by returning fire with their new rifles, which were some of the new weapons brought on board while repairs were being completed on Enterprise after the extensive damage it had sustained during the Xindi conflict. These rifles were outfitted with an extra large power cell for automatic fire, and a special nozzle designed to spread smaller phase pulses, with different pattern settings, in order to lay down more effective suppressing fire. The lead soldier was quickly cut down by the sudden torrent of small blue pulses, along with a second soldier who had been in position to support him. The other soldiers quickly realized that they did not have the element of surprise and hung back out of the line of fire before making another attempt with a grenade. It also detonated harmlessly, and Lieutenant McKenzie and Sergeant Kemper unleashed another new device on the soldiers.

It was attached under the nose of the rifle, right in front of the forward hand grip and was used to launch a smaller version of the standard phase grenades or stun grenade. They launched them into the alien ship and the detonations were quickly followed up by the advance of Corporals Woods, Ramira, Chang, and Cole. The ensuing fight was fierce, but short. The phase grenades had been effective, killing a few of the soldiers and caused the rest to run for cover. Unfortunately for the enemy soldiers, the hallways were long, wide, and devoid of any cover, so most of them were cut down and only a few were able to escape through some large doors which apparently lead to different cargo bays.

"Clear! Clear! Clear!" Called out the MACOs as all three directions were now empty of live hostiles.

"McKenzie to Bridge. We've repelled the attackers. Standing by for your orders."

Bridge

"Sir, they are beaming in to surround the bridge, engineering, and the armory," Malcolm announced after an alarm had sounded on his console.

The MACO team of Corporals Kelly, Parsons, and O'Malley, along with Captain Archer and Lieutenant Commander Reed, were taking cover in positions covering all five entrances to the bridge and were ready when the soldiers came bursting onto the bridge.

The first wave was down in seconds, caught in a blaze of blue and orange light, and the second was only partially caught off guard. The soldiers had figured out that their arrival was not unexpected, and unleashed dark red bolts of plasma which ripped into consoles and blew out monitors. They did not, however, succeed in hitting any of the Enterprise crew.

The MACOs took this as a cue to toss their stun grenades and advance. The blinding flash and shockwave they produced knocked out a few of the soldiers, while the remainder of the soldiers could not recover fast enough to prevent the MACOs from gunning them down. And thus the resistance on the bridge was quickly eliminated.

After the MACOs announced that the bridge was secure, Archer said. "Break orbit, Travis. Plot a course out of the system."

The comm beeped and Hoshi put through Trip's call from Engineering.

"We're done Cap'n. Initiating transporter jamming now." Some firing could be heard in the background, but there was a tone of triumph in Trip's voice rather than fear or concern.

"There are still fire fights occurring around engineering. Minimal casualties reported." Malcolm was relieved that everything had gone this well so far, though he wasn't surprised. The MACOs had greatly benefited from their experience in the Expanse and was now living up to their full potential. However, no matter how good they were, it was still difficult to defend all the critical areas around Engineering with only two MACO teams and the armed engineers on duty in that area.

"Ok Malcolm, let's hit them back. I want a MACO team to get a Photonic Torpedo over to their ship, and we also need to take out their docking clamps." Archer then turned to the MACO team and said. "I need you guys to get over there and help Lieutenant McKenzie and Sergeant Kemper's team." Archer wondered if he was sending them to their deaths, but he knew that unless they succeeded, they would probably all die.

Malcolm relayed Archer's orders and said. "Corporal Walker's team has acknowledged and is on its way." Another alarm sounded at Malcolm's console. "The other three ships have set a pursuit course. They must have figured out that their surprise attack didn't go as planned. With this freighter still attached to us, they'll be in weapons range in less than two minutes."

Mic'gan Freighter

"Lieutenant, I need you to take out their docking clamps, so that we can get that ship off of us." It was Lieutenant Commander Reed's voice that came through McKenzie's sub-dermal transceiver.

"Yes, sir."

Both McKenzie and Kemper took their scanners out, and settled them on two different points on opposite sides of the air lock. They each ripped off a panel, placed a phase grenade inside before replacing the panel. The enemy soldiers had been unable to mount an effective counter-attack and their two attempts to push back the MACOs were easily repelled.

Bridge

A moment later, Hoshi put through Lieutenant McKenzie's transmission. "The charges have been set. It's been fairly quiet over here; we haven't taken any casualties."

Hoshi switched to another transmission which came from Corporal Walker. "We've just got the package onboard: it'll be ready momentarily."

A third transmission came from Trip in Engineering. "Engineering is secure. We've taken some damage to our power system, but our systems are still running at full power."

Mic'gan Freighter

A minute or so later, Corporals Kelly, Parsons, and O'Malley arrived carting along a Photonic Torpedo.

"The Captain wants to give our friends here a parting gift." Corporal Kelly said, gesturing to the torpedo.

"We'll need to hide it in one of those cargo bays. Keep it out of sight until we secure one of them." Lieutenant McKenzie knew that if the enemy soldiers found out what was going on, their plan wouldn't work.

As the torpedo was moved out of sight, a sudden series of explosions erupted in all three directions, soon followed by plasma bolts being blind fired through the smoke. Chang was hit in the shoulder by one of the bolts, and collapsed to the deck. Rapid counterfire by the MACOs quickly brought an end to the attack, as the imaging systems on their rifle scopes were capable of seeing through the haze.

Corporal Parsons stayed behind to treat Chang while McKenzie, Kemper, Kelly, and O'Malley moved down the hall to the right until they reached one of the cargo bay doors. In typical MACO fashion, Kemper did not simply key the door to open; he set a charge and blew it open. The pieces of the door slammed into some cargo containers penetrating them, and sending spare parts everywhere. Corporal O'Malley was on point, so he ran into the cargo bay to find some cover while the enemy soldiers were recovering from the explosion. Corporal Kelly moved in behind and to the side of O'Malley in order to cover his left side. He heard plasma discharges as O'Malley was shot several times in the chest area before he could react to the target.

Kelly quickly took down a couple soldiers who were popping out of their cover behind a cargo container in order to face the MACO onslaught. He had no time to turn and deal with the soldiers who had taken out O'Malley and was hit in the arm and leg before Sergeant Kemper was able to take down a couple soldiers who were up on a second floor railing.

Lieutenant McKenzie came in from a second door, which she had opened normally, and took down a couple more soldiers, and then laid down a large amount of fire so that Kemper could get in position to take out the rest of the soldiers who were busy trying to take cover from this sudden onslaught not to meantion trying to find a way to fight back. As McKenzie told Parsons to get the torpedo over to their position, the sounds of a fire fight could be heard. Kemper picked up O'Malley while McKenzie helped Kelly.

In the hallway, Corporals Cole and Parsons were holding off some soldiers who were attempting to shoot them and stay in cover at the same time. Corporals Walker, Money, and Ramira were pushing the torpedo down the hall, and McKenzie ordered them to hide it in one of the ruptured cargo containers. Then it was just a simple matter of disengaging from the fire fight, which was accomplished with absurd ease with a trio of stun grenades and a lot of phase bolts.

Bridge

Time was running out as the three ships were gaining on the anchored Enterprise when another transmission from Lieutenant McKenzie came through. "Detonating the charges now."

An explosion shook the ship slightly, and Enterprise was freed from its burden. The other ships that had been mere seconds away from attaining a weapons lock would not be able catch them at impulse power.

"The freighter is raising their shields and is in pursuit." Malcolm announced.

"Take them out!" Archer replied. He was surprised at the excitement in his voice: he almost felt like Malcolm.

"With pleasure, sir." Malcolm grinned as he triggered the Photonic Torpedo.

The explosion ripped through the side of the freighter and collapsed its shields, but not before a large portion of the explosion had been redirected back toward the ship to cause even more damage.

About a third of the freighter was either missing or irreparably damaged, and it tumbled over out of control. Suddenly there were more secondary explosions which resulted in the entire ship going up in one large explosion.

"It looks like your security teams are a little too good at their jobs." Archer said, noting the size and amount of debris which was all that remained of the ship.

"Well, they were trained how to deploy explosives for maximum damage." Malcolm replied.

"The other ships have reached the wreckage, and are apparently scanning for survivors." Travis announced.

_Good luck_ was all that Malcolm could think.


	6. Chapter 5

Bridge

"Cap'n, we've got a bit of a situation down here. We were making repairs in the area of the primary warp coil, and we found something odd." Trip had just reported in to the bridge, and he did not sound happy.

"Let me guess: there's nothing wrong with the primary warp coil." Archer had never even considered the possibility of T'Pol's fourth option. No human would have logically done so, since it seemed to be a virtual impossiblility. Now Archer discovered that he had issued the order to kill a bunch of people who were trying to defend themselves from a hostile ship.

"You got it. I don't understand why the computer messed up on the readings. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it." The frustration and anger was very apparent in Trip's voice, but his anger was directed toward himself for not confirming the computer's diagnostic readings rather than any of Archer's decisions.

"There is, however, the mysterious invisible block of data. It is quite possible that it could be affecting the computer by making it give false readings." T'Pol could feel everyone's negative emotions bombarding her and she was attempting to steer everyone back to calmly analyze the situation and come up with a solution.

"Do you mean that we could still have our warp nacelles?" Archer asked, horrified at the suggestion. A simple look out of a nacelle facing window would have told them that nothing was wrong with them.

"That is a distinct possibility. We can not know that for certain without visual confirmation." T'Pol was again reminded of their great dependence on technology which, in Enterprise's case, was still somewhat limited. She also noted that everything that had happened recently revolved around the invisible block of data.

"Captain, the Mic'gan ships are powering up their warp drives!" Travis practically shouted this. The ships were going to perform a short warp jump in order to cut off Enterprise's retreat. Although the thought of this combat had excited him earlier, it now gave him a sick feeling in his stomach. Any combat now would inflict more casualties on a race which had done nothing wrong.

"Trip, we need warp speed now!" All that Archer knew was that it was entirely unacceptable to inflict more casualties on the Mic'gan, and the only ways to prevent it was to either run away or be destroyed.

"Without proper readings, that'll be extremely dangerous." Trip complained. This was something out of one of his nightmares. Enterprise itself had become his enemy and he was going to have to do this as if he where blindfolded and on the wrong deck.

"I don't care, just do it!"

Trip initiated the warp drive and the ship lurched into warp, which would have thrown everyone from their seats if they hadn't been holding onto the handles which had been put there for that very reason.

"Trip, status report!" The ship seemed to have stopped accelerating, but it was still shaking quite badly.

"The warp field isn't stable, but with the readings that I'm getting it'll be virtually impossible to stabilize. Most of them are consistent with the ship traveling at impulse. If I can't stabilize the warp field we might really lose the nacelles this time!" Trip was doing everything he possibly could to stabilize the warp field, but nothing was working so far.

"I am attempting to isolate all of the free space on the computer core, so that I can erase the invisible data." T'Pol knew that she would not finish before the warp nacelles fractured, but at least their computer systems would be back to normal.

"Captain, they are no longer in pursuit." Malcolm announced. Fortunately they were content to merely drive Enterprise out of the system, unless they were waiting to see if they were actually going to lose their nacelles this time.

"Trip, you can drop us out of warp now." Archer was greatly relieved that the Mic'gan weren't bent upon destroying them, and T'Pol could have time to fix the computer so that an attempt could be made to salvage something out of this mission. However, he knew that it would take years to earn back their trust if they were able to do it at all.

"We can't Cap'n. Everything is happening the same way that it did last time." Trip replied, clearly preoccupied.

"What did you say?" A sudden revelation came to Archer's mind and everything suddenly made sense.

"Sorry, can't talk right now." Trip severed the connection.

A moment later when the warp field instability had reached its peak, the nacelles once again fractured into several pieces, causing the ship to jolt sharply and follow its rocky path back to impulse speed.

After everything had settled back down Trip reported back in to the bridge.

"Cap'n, we're getting the same readings again, but I sent Crewman Kelly to the observation room and the nacelles are still perfectly intact."

"Captain, the Mic'gan are back in pursuit. They'll be here in a couple of minutes." Malcolm reported. He too had figured out what was going on: they're back.

"T'Pol. Status." Archer was on the edge of his seat. Everyone knew what was coming: their day was far from being finished.

"I have just finished isolating the free space and am initiating the deletion sequence - now."


	7. Chapter 6

"Phlox to Bridge. Captain, what is going on around here? I have dead people waking up in here." Phlox was understandably confused at this sudden turn of events, but he was not sure he was entirely ok with it.

"We're a little busy at the moment. I'll fill you in later." Archer closed the channel and was trying to remember where he had heard something like that before. A new image on the viewscreen quickly stole all of his attention.

"The ship has the same configuration as the one we encountered approximately four years ago." T'Pol had run the scan even though it wasn't necessary. She had expected to have another run in with these aliens, but she did not expect them to use some sort of simulation to test them.

"It's sitting out there at a distance of 50,000 kilometers." Malcolm reported. He also wasn't surprised to see them again, but he had expected them to be back for revenge. Instead of simply destroying them, they were toying with Enterprise again. Only this time at a much higher level.

"Hail them." Archer growled. He didn't like being manipulated and pushed around like this and was seriously considering whether or not to destroy their ship this time. "This is Captain Archer of the starship Enterprise. I demand an explanation for subjecting us to this simulation."

"No response, Captain." Hoshi said after a moments pause. Captain Archer was always having her hail hostile aliens and they never responded, so what did he expect?

"That's not surprising." Malcolm muttered. When the Captain failed to get a response to a hail it was then Malcolm's job to force them to respond.

"Captain, the only way they could have uploaded that program into our computer core is through the main computer terminal. It is logical to assume that they have already attacked us and were victorious." T'Pol stated. Along with uploading the simulation program they had also modified their memories. As she would not be needed during the ensuing battle, she then decided to devote her time in an attempt to restore her old memories.

"That's true, Captain, but that means that they must have either significantly improved their weapons and defense systems, they caught us off guard, or perhaps both." Malcolm added. He was quickly trying to think of anything unconventional that they could try, but he knew that this would be a grueling fight in which many of the Enterprise crew would die. There would be an extremely low margin for error, so there wasn't much room for anything fancy.

"If they beat us the first time, then how could we ever hope to defeat them this time?" Hoshi asked. She knew that this was not a constructive thing to say, but she felt so violated that she couldn't help herself.

"Captain, they've fired up their impulse drive and are on an intercept course." Travis reported. It was during ship to ship combat that he had the most fun at the helm. However, he was not feeling any anticipation: there was only anxiety about a faceless enemy who seemed to be unstoppable.

"Go to one-half impulse and set up for an oblique attack." Archer knew that the opening volley was going to be critical and quickly opened a channel to the entire ship.

"Our friends from four years ago are back. They're bigger and better now and are the cause of all these recent events. In a matter of moments we will be engaged in combat and many of us will not survive. I'd just like to say that its been an honor to serve with all of you. Archer out."

He turned his attention back to the viewscreen where the ship was almost in optimal weapons' range. Seconds later it unleashed a torrent of disruptor fire which slammed into the forward hull causing the entire ship to shake and the bridge crew to grab on to something in order to keep their balance.

"Forward plating's down to twenty percent." Malcolm reported. He was greatly relieved, as he had expected to receive hull damage from their opening volley.

"Return fire all weapons." Archer was mentally crossing his fingers, hoping that they would give better than they got.

Enterprise responded with a volley of photonic torpedoes followed by a full burst from two of the forward phase cannons. The impact of the torpedoes was absorbed by the shields, but caused them to crackle violently. The phase cannons drained the shields of their remaining power and they fizzled out.

"Their forward shield has collapsed." Malcolm announced proudly.

Both ships had performed an oblique pass to their right, so that they could line up their aft firing weapons and quickly show and undamaged section of hull plating or shields. The alien ship fired first, letting loose some more disruptor fire.

"Aft torpedoes fire." Archer ordered as the disruptor fire impacted.

Enterprise responded with a pair of photonic torpedoes which found their mark on their aft shields.

"Aft plating's down to twenty percent. Minimal damage to their aft shields."

"Travis, hard starboard, show them our dorsal hull.

Enterprise executed the maneuver beautifully, which was mirrored by the alien vessel.

"Fire."

The ships exchanged some more phase cannon fire for more disruptor fire.

"Minimal damage to their dorsal shields. Dorsal plating's down to forty-seven percent."

"Travis, starboard ninety degrees, show them our ventral hull. Fire when ready."

The maneuver was once again mirrored and more fire was exchanged.

"Ventral plating down to forty-seven percent."

"Travis, turn port: line up the aft torpedoes. Fire when ready."

The alien ship had started to follow Enterprise, but the incoming torpedoes forced them to angle off and show their dorsal shield onto which the torpedoes impacted.

"Their dorsal shields are weakening."

The ship quickly responded with another burst of disruptor fire which crashed into the back of Enterprise and penetrated the hull in several locations. The ship lurched violently and sparks erupted in the bridge area.

"Aft plating's down. We have multiple hull breaches! Emergency bulkheads engaged. They took out a phase cannon and a torpedo tube."

"Alter course 90 port, show them our ventral hull. Fire when ready."

The alien ship had turned and rolled over in order to show its ventral shields into which Enterprise fired its phase cannons. Disruptor fire impacted into Enterprise, shaking the entire ship, but only left some burn marks and small gouges in the hull.

"Ventral plating's gone, minor damage to the hull." They were running out of polarized hull plating and something had to be done to shake things up.

"Travis, turn port: line up the forward torpedoes."

The alien ship responded by turning to show its aft shield as Enterprise maneuvered to follow them.

"Fire all weapons."

"As Malcolm executed Archer's command, he quickly said. "Travis flip us over turning 180 degrees."

Archer was upset by Malcolm's sudden interruption at first, but he quickly reminded himself that they had already been defeated when he called all of the maneuvers.

Meanwhile, the photonic torpedoes impacted into their aft shield, severely weakening it so that when the phase cannons ripped into the shields, they collapsed and the phase cannons cut into the hull. As Enterprise was halfway through Malcolm's maneuver, more disruptor fire had come and was just able to penetrate the ventral hull.

"We've collapsed their aft shield, they've taken moderate damage; we've taken out one of their disruptors. Ventral hull plating is down, minimal damage."

The alien ship flipped itself over and began to accelerate toward Enterprise.

"Aft torpedoes fire."

The torpedoes were launched at extreme range, but they were still right on target, and their detonation created two large holes in the hull.

"Moderate damage to their forward hull; we've taken out another of their disruptors."

"Execute a L4 on my mark." Taking after Malcolm's bold move, Archer hoped that this would conclude the firefight without suffering too many casualties.

The alien ship quickly closed in on Enterprise, setting up for the kill.

Archer was on the edge of his seat calculating the perfect moment to perform the maneuver. "Mark!"

The alien ship fired off a full volley of disruptors and the bolts impacted on Enterprise's ventral hull, and ripped holes in the duranium as if it were tin foil. But Enterprise kept on going, looping around the ship.

Smoke began to fill the upper portion of the ceiling and debris mounted on the floor. Everyone braced themselves to receive more fire.

"Heavy damage to our ventral hull, we've lost two torpedo tubes and phase cannons!" Malcolm could both hear and feel the hull buckling and willed it to stay together.

The alien ship had too much forward momentum and couldn't recover and counter the loop; in spite of this, it was able to fire its disruptors again. This time they impacted into the dorsal hull, opening several more holes in the duranium.

"Heavy damage to the dorsal hull! We've lost 3 more phase cannons!"

The bridge was falling apart: sparks and smoke were everywhere, screens were smashed, pieces of the ceiling and walls were scattered all over the floor, internal ship components had become exposed, and the excess air pressure was being vented onto the bridge.

"Phase cannons! Disable them!" Archer shouted as he picked himself off the floor.

The phase cannon beams lashed out at the back of the alien ship, ripping through the ship's nacelles, impulse engines, and disruptor cannons, thus causing the ship to tumble out of control.

"Their weapons are coming back into arc! We can't sustain another volley!" Malcolm noticed that, although all of their propulsion systems were offline, their weapons were still online and the drifting of the ship would allow their use.

"Photonic torpedo! Take out their power systems!" Archer didn't want the ship destroyed as he felt that he was now in a position to force some answers out of them.

The torpedo was quickly launched and opened another sizable hole in the hull and caused the entire ship to go dark.

"Keep our weapons locked on their main reactor."

"All of their main systems are offline; they are operating on emergency power only." Malcolm and the rest of the bridge let out a collective sigh of relief. Everyone felt that they could relax now, excluding T'Pol, who seemed to be in some sort of trance.

"What's our status?" Archer directed this question to Hoshi, who was monitoring the damage reports from all decks.

"We have heavy damage on all decks and multiple hull breaches. A few of the emergency bulkheads failed and some sections have decompressed. So far there have been nine confirmed dead and twenty-two wounded, several of them critical."

"Hail them. We'll get some answers from them this time."


	8. Epilogue

"This is Captain Archer of the starship Enterprise. Explain your actions or we will destroy your vessel." Archer thought that he would be livid at this point, but instead felt as if he'd been severely wounded.

"Enterprise, all of our actions have been done solely for your benefit." The voice was obviously electronic, so Archer could not get any sense of emotion or meaning to this audio only response.

"Our benefit? Several of my people are dead and several more have been seriously injured, excuse me if I fail to see the benefit it provided." Archer could feel his anger building up, erasing most of his negative emotions. This was one of the most incredible statements that he had ever heard.

"Your people are about to find themselves in great danger from an enemy that specializes in deception and is determined to wipe out your entire race. You will be unable to rely upon your allies to save you. They are only interested in their own welfare and will not see any reason to help you. Right now your enemies are getting stronger in both the number of ships and technology, while Starfleet is making minimal gains. All of your allies have the technology you so desperately need, but they will never give it to you. In the meantime your scientists will not be able to create this technology in time."

"Are you offering us technology? How can we trust any of this information that you are giving us?" Trip had just entered the bridge and was confused at this sudden friendly gesture.

"Check your sensors. You will notice that our ship is equipped with photon torpedoes. We could have destroyed you at any time."

"He's correct, Captain. If they had used them, they would nearly have crippled us with their opening volley." Malcolm said after he ran some scans. They were obviously far more advanced than anyone ever thought.

"You've proven today that your tactics have improved tremendously since our last meeting. None of our people expected you to discover our training program, yet alone defeat us in head to head combat. You have proven yourselves worthy of our gift. We would like to wish you peace and prosperity through the years to come, though you'll rarely ever have any."

Captain's Starlog - September 2, 2155. We have just established a trade agreement with a friendly species. They have given us shield technology as a reward for completing a remarkable training program that they created. We'll be heading back to Earth for an extensive refit in which we'll add a tractor beam and emergency forcefields to replace the bulkheads. Starfleet intelligence is telling us that the Romulans are dealing with Orion pirates in order to purchase technology to upgrade their own ships. So we'll need all the protection we can get if they decide to attack us again.

"T'Pol to Archer."

"Go ahead."

"I have just had the most peculiar dream."

"Really? You should tell it to me over dinner tonight; I'll invite Trip. Is there anything else?" "No sir. T'Pol out."

_This should be an interesting evening,_ Archer thought. Meanwhile, Porthos was near the doorway with his nose to the air, sniffing.

"What's the matter Porthos? Do you smell something?"


End file.
